[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5822-5823]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            GASOLINE PRICES

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, there have been several speeches today--I 
was not here, but I got a briefing--about the high gasoline prices, and 
I want to clarify some of the comments raised by the minority leader 
today and his Members in the press.
  The minority is so eager to blame others for high gas prices they 
seem to ignore the fact that they do not bother to consult the media 
when they have a deadline. I am more interested in reducing high 
gasoline prices for American families than to bluster the selfish 
political advantage, unlike the minority.
  I took the time to consider the nonpartisan experts of the Energy 
Information Administration and what they had to say. According to the 
EIA, there are three reasons leading to high gasoline prices. First, 
the Nation has not fully recovered from hurricane damage. Twenty 
percent of the domestic oil production and three refineries, 
representing nearly 5 percent of refining capacity, remain offline. 
However, offshore production is resuming and refineries are restarting. 
The EIA points out that the industry delayed maintenance to maximize 
production following the hurricanes. Today they must switch over to 
summer blends.
  Yet the focus is on the politics. The senior Senator from New York 
charged the refiners are purposely withholding capacity from 
traditionally operating at 90 percent to the current operation of 85 
percent. In demanding an investigation, that Senator also implied that 
the refiners should not maintain their facilities to ensure a safe work 
environment for employees or they should not switch to special summer 
blends.
  One thing was clear. The senior Senator from New York did not bother 
to consider the fact that nearly 5 percent of domestic refining 
capacity is still

[[Page 5823]]

offline due to hurricanes. Mr. President, 90 percent minus 5 percent 
equals 85 percent, as the investigation found.
  Second, companies are increasing inventories to hedge against 
potential disruption in the future. Most of the time, the minority 
would call such risk management responsible but not when they celebrate 
the misfortune of the American people.
  The third reason has to do with MTBE, and I won't get into that. I 
will only say this. I am the chairman of a committee that is called the 
Environment and Public Works Committee. It is our responsibility to 
handle most of the problems. We are in an energy crisis. There is no 
question about it. But for any Democrat to stand on the floor of this 
Senate and try to point the finger at Republicans for high gasoline 
prices is really absurd.
  I have sat there and watched the votes take place. We are not able to 
vote on ANWR in northern Alaska. Right down party lines, Republicans 
are supporting it, the Alaskans are supporting it, the Democrats are 
opposing it. We are not able to go offshore and take advantage of the 
tremendous reserves that are there. It is right down party lines. Right 
down party lines they stopped us from being able to have tax incentives 
to go after marginal production.
  I am from a State that has marginal production. There is a statistic 
that if we had all the marginal production flowing today that has been 
plugged in the last 10 years, it would be more than we are currently 
importing from Saudi Arabia.
  Lastly, in the area of nuclear energy, it goes right down party 
lines.
  I had a refinery bill that would have coupled with some of the closed 
military bases and said cities can use EDA grants to go in there and 
set up refineries and employ people and increase our refining capacity, 
and it was blocked right down party lines.
  So the Democrats are clearly responsible for these problems we have 
in trying to increase the productivity, increase the production that is 
potentially out there today.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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